OctOgre Cup 4, 18th-19th October 2025

This year was the fourth year of the OctOgre Cup, and the first without our illustrious leader EldritchFox running the show. As he has relocated, Matt (MCB_Turnogre) kindly took the lead, with assistance from me.

I decided to run slann. I only decided this 10 days before the event, and Matt very kindly 3D printed me some models which I hastily painted. I've never painted a team that quickly before, and the intense painting period was actually a really good learning experience. I'm also pretty happy with how the team turned out.

We ran a sevens event on the Friday night at Chaos Cards again. I was the spare player and ended up needing to step in. I took slann for this. They weren't great. They really really need re-rolls. I won't go into detail of these games as it will really be me bemoaning not having any re-rolls. I lost to Marianne (yantz)'s goblins, then Elliot (DevilEyez)'s norse and finally snuck a draw against Andy (ZarganLawful)'s black orcs. The most notable thing about the sevens is that we all very kindly let the lovely Primhak get his first tournament win on his birthday.

The OctOgre Cup is a fun ruleset. You basically have to take a strength 5+ player if you're able to roster one. If you have no strength 5+ players on the pitch at the start of each half, a drunk ogre bops one on the head and takes their place. As such, you get a lot of less common builds.

For my slann, having to take the Kroxigor, I decided also to try out a couple of the blitzers who got wrestle, I then had 3 catchers (2 dodge, 1 guard) and 5 linemen (1 block, 1 strip ball) with 4 re-rolls and an apothecary. 

I'm aware that the competitive build takes only catchers and linemen, and I want to try this at some point, although one of the main reasons I wanted to play them now was that I think that the NAF should/will not update them for Season 3 when it is released, so I wanted to tick them off while I had a chance to do so. There may not be a chance for me to try the more competitive build, but we will see.

Round 1 v Will (theamazingwill)

I'd chatted to Will a bit before the event, he was down from Essex and staying with his brother in Canterbury. He had humans with the lineup you'd expect generally, although he'd gone for 2 mighty blow blitzers, 2 guard, juggernaught on the ogre and block or sidestep on the catchers and taken 2 throwers.

I kicked to him (seems like the right choice playing slann) and after a couple of turns he tried to move the ball up to his blitzer. This left me an opportunity to try to strip ball, which I did and recovered. I was able to get out of range and stalled almost accidentally due to getting sent off on a foul, and then scored on turn 6. I actually managed a second in the half, as I was able to swarm and take advantage of a failed pickup to put a lot of pressure on.

I quick score on my drive to go 3-0 and then the kick goes to Will's ogre, known as Big Chris after his friend who gave him the model. Chris proceeded to march up the pitch. Even after I was able to uphill strip the ball, Chris was not phased. He plodded on, and picked it up for an awesome consolation touchdown.

Round 2 v Lachlan (lachlanbc)

Lachlan and I have played a couple of times online recently, but never in person. We were talking about this and then I drew the fixtures and we were paired up!

He had Snotlings with a sporting giant and Hakflem. This is pretty difficult to deal with. I forgot that Hakflem was strength 3 so my strip ball blitz rolled a skull into a skull. Had I remembered, I would have leapt my guard catcher in first. After this, the snotlings completely surround the ball carrier in a meat cube. 

This allowed the snotlings to grind up the pitch, killing dead dead a few players and scoring in their turn 8. 

I score quickly on my drive and Lachlan does a meat cube again but as he needs to start looking to push up the pitch, I base up a lot of players and eventually a snotling snakes a dodge, meaning I'm able to get a 2 dice block on Hakflem, strip the ball and run away with it.

This really didn't feel like a game I would lead at any point, and it feels like I stole it.

The snotlings had a one turn attempt, and Lachlan sets up to do it via both a throw team mate and a chainpush on Hakflem. However, I get a blitz and wrestle Hakflem to the ground which narrows the snotlings options. 

A troll tries to throw the player with the ball, needing to hope for a good scatter, but instead he decides to eat the snotling which ends the game with a 2-1 win to the slann.

Round 3 v Matt (MCB_Turnogre)

In the final round of the day, it is a battle of the TOs! Matt has orcs and I manage to get a lot of hits on the ball and knock it loose. It ends up in the hands of a catcher who I decide to dodge past an orc. The catcher could simply have run past but wouldn't have been as far forward, so the dodge felt worth the risk. It turns out it wasn't as the snaked dodge allows the orcs to recover. 

They need a hand off to score but they fail, so we go in 0-0 at half time. 

I push to score quickly but I struggle to keep it safe. A one dice pow and recovery means the orcs have the advantage. I knock the ball lose again but an orc blitzer runs away with it. A last gasp attempt at a blitz with a wrestling blitzer fails a rush leaving the orcs to walk it in for a 1-0 win.

I went out for a lovely pizza with a few of the players who had travelled down but being utterly zonked, I didn't stay too late. I wanted to make sure that Chicken23 didn't get so drunk that he'd leave mid-way through Sunday, leaving all of his possessions in Folkestone. Fortunately, there were other trustworthy coaches there to keep him on the straight and narrow. 

Round 4 v Ross (Cerbeross)

Apparently this is only the second time Ross and I have played at a tournament. The first was at Oli's leaving Sevens event which I forgot to write up, in which he bagged his first tournament win with goblins! 

Today Ross had dwarfs. Dwarfs obviously need to take the deathroller and accept that they'll have an ogre for the start of the second half. 

Somehow I managed to get a slight numbers advantage. The dice were favouring me. Similar to the game against Matt, I was able to knock the ball loose but unable to keep it safe. The dwarfs recovered and scored on turn 8.

With the deathroller replaced by an ogre, the numbers were 7 v 8. I would have thought that at this point, the slann are potentially favoured as dwarfs can struggle when they lose numbers, but I pushed for a quick score to go for the win and I was unable to keep it safe. I lost the ball and ended up 2-0. I was then able to successfully achieve a quick score, but at that point it was just a consolation.

Round 5 v James (fluffles)

James had snotlings - also with a giant - but not with any star players. This allowed him a pump wagon and more re-rolls than Lachlan had been able to afford.

Very early I was able to jump in and pop the ball loose but I couldn't keep it safe. The snotligns recovered and ended up scoring in turn 8, leaving no time for a reply. The pump wagon stayed on the pitch (after re-rolling the 1 for the argue) and I was able to spend some resources and score quickly. 

This game, James did start to realise that if he closed off all opportunities to jump in then he could stop me having any chance on the ball. A little clarification on how sidestep works with chain pushes, and he decides to have the ball carrier on the sideline surrounded by Snotlings. He does however leave a gap between the giant and the cage, meaning there is space for me to leap two players in and push a snotling into the ball carrier, meaning the ball goes off the pitch.

I have a shot at a 6+ pass which I take. I get excited and forget to stand up my 2 downed players, so when it inevitably goes wrong, the Snotlings attempt to get the winner is a bit easier. Fortunately for me, the dice just let him down for the part of the score, and it ends up a 1-1 draw.

Round 6 v Sid (insidious) 

Sid is one of the Brighton league who I know pretty well and I've played against him a few times now. We were 1 win apiece in full BloodBowl games. Two games which were actually consecutive NAF games for me! The final game of the Pissed Up Terry Testimonial and the first game of UKTC 2023, which is one of those unlikely consequences that sometimes comes up in Blood Bowl.

Sid had nobles. My memory of this game is a little hazy after a long weekend of thinking! I steal the ball on his drive and score before scoring quick on my drive to go 2-0 up. The game doesn't feel safe though as he scores back quickly. There is the risk of a turnover and an equaliser, but I'm just about able to keep the ball safe for a 2-1 win.

Conclusion

I ended up 3/1/2 in 6th place which I was pretty happy with, especially with a team I was very unfamiliar with. 

Matt ended up winning the event on 4/2/0, very narrowly pipping Alex (bonethugsnoharmony) into second place on strength of schedule. Alex had been on top table since game 3, and a win would have secured the victory, but he was only able to manage a draw against SaltySeaWench.

What did I learn about frogs? The two losses were when I was able to knock the ball loose but not keep it safe. The advice I received from Frog King greenskinphil was to make sure I took the shots at the right time. I think I was getting over excited about having an opportunity to hit the ball, that I didn't think about recovery and keeping my players safe. 

They are also one of those teams that you have to switch your mindset for - like vampires. You have to approach the game in a different way, and this is one of the reasons why they are fun. I really enjoy high turnover teams, and I think if I played them a lot, they would become one of my favourites. I may not have that opportunity, we will see. The ideal solution will be if Mr James Workshop brings out at team that are either slann, or slaan-ish. It feels like nearly a no brainer for them to do so, as they're already a reasonably popular team with good rules, but we will see if it happens.